WordPress Security Recommendations and Plugins

[Jason]

As more and more Charlottezweb customers migrate to WordPress, I wanted to post a few links I've found valuable. 

Due to its popularity, WordPress is becoming a constant target for hackers.  There are lots of insecure and/or outdated plugins, themes and outdated WordPress installs which I regularly come across once sites have been compromised.

I'd like to post a few awesome links below but first off, here are a few quick recommendations:

1.  Login to your WordPress Admin area at least every 2-3 weeks and run all updates.  This includes WordPress itself, its plugins and themes.  With the latest versions of WordPress, you can set it to automatically upgrade itself.  This is a great idea but you still have to keep your plugins and themes current.  Most compromises I see are due to outdated plugins/themes.

2.  Run regular backups and download them to your own computer.  In many of the compromises I see, it may go undiscovered to where our daily and weekly backups are outdated once noticed.  I *strongly* recommend practicing a regular backup procedure to your own computer (off the server) in the event a known, clean copy of all files is needed.

These are quick reads from our datacenter's website:

Top Four WordPress Security Tips You Need To Follow 
(The page formatting is currently broken but scroll down for the content)

Top Three Security Plugins For Your WordPress Site   
(The page formatting is currently broken but scroll down for the content)

Protect Your Site From WordPress Plugin Vulnerabilities

Five Simple Tasks to Keep Your Website from Getting Hacked   
(This site is for a company that was a past Charlottezweb customer.  I like their content and felt was worth sharing).

If you have additional advice you'd like to share on securing your WordPress installs, please feel free!

Thanks,
Jason